Swiftech H20-320 Edge Water Cooling Kit overview

The Swiftech H20-320 Edge Building a high performance “do-it-yourself” water cooling system for your PC cannot be done on the cheap. When you take into account all of the time you need to research each and every component, hunting down those components and then installing them….and not to mention the actual cost of the parts themselves. You get the point; it is not a cheap proposition.

Building a “High Quality” liquid cooling system can be a challenging for experienced builders and downright overwhelming for the beginner. Thankfully there is a solution to help ease your pain and that’s where Swiftech may be just what the doctor ordered.

Closer Look:

Swiftech’s Edge series comes in two varieties: the H2O-220 with a dual radiator and H2O-320 with its triple radiator. We’ve got the big triple rad version today. The Edge features Swiftech’s new MCR Drive Rev2, with a combination of radiator, pump and reservoir as a whole unit, used in conjunction with the Apogee XTL CPU block. The Apogee XTL is the “Lite” version of the high performance Apogee XT block.

For more than a decade now Swiftech H20-320 Edge has been a leader in the liquid cooling world. Swiftech’s research and development has won them numerous awards for their design and proven performance of their DIY water-cooling kits. One such kit is the Apex Ultima Series which have served so many for so long now.

Well, 2010 began a new decade for Swiftech and they are launching a new all-in-one extreme performance water-cooling kit, the “H2O-320 Edge”. The H2O-320 is not designed for the novice who needs a simple DIY kit; rather, it’s targeted directly at the premium market and should grab the attention of the more hardcore water-cooling enthusiasts out there.

We’ve received the triple radiator version, the H2O-320 Edge, so let’s take it for a test ride today. This should be interesting.

Apogee XTL CPU Block

First off, let’s look at the CPU block. The Apogee XTL is Swiftech’s latest generation of Apogee CPU block. The Apogee XTL (Lite) is a refreshed version of the popular XT block, and has an Acetal top instead of brass and no rotating port-plate.

The Apogee block design is based on the proven cooling performance of 250 µm micronpin-matrix copper cold-plate. The cold-plate has a very slim profile, particularly across the central block area.

This design helps push the coolant much closer to the heat source for better thermal performance. It is also electrolytic and mirror-polished. Swiftech continues to use their impressive universal mounting mechanism for the Apogee XTL.

According to Swiftech, the milling process of the micro cuts is a very difficult one, leaving the pins very fragile and prone to damage. As for coolant flow, the liquid is injected at the center of the pin-matrix plate then is forced around the pins and moves outward to gather together at the outlet port.

MCR320X20 Drive (Radiator / Reservoir / Pump) Combo

The combination of radiator, pump and reservoir as one unit is Swiftech’s world first innovative design.The advantage of this design is to eliminate extra tubing and making it easier to plumb, thus reducing the overall pressure drop but also making the kit very user-friendly for novices. Believe it or not, the MCR320 Drive isn’t much bigger than the regular MCR320 QP radiator. It’s about 1.5” longer though the height is almost the same.

The radiator is made out of brass and copper, sporting 16 brass tubes and 13FPI copper fins. The reservoir and water chamber are also made of brass.This radiator is a two-pass water flow design that maximizes heat dissipation. Three 12cm fans are pre-installed in a “push” configuration and individually each fan will push up to 81CFM of air at 2100RPM.

The MCR320 Drive comes with the new MCP-35X hydraulic pump which has greater head pressure compared to the popular MCP3XX series. This PWM pump is speed-adjustable via the motherboard BIOS. It can be set from extreme speed to totally silent.

The compact brass reservoir has two filler ports which allow you to install the radiator either vertical or horizontally. As you can see below, the MCR320 drive I received has a matte black paint job. Unfortunately, my sample has some paint flaws but then again it is a review sample so we’re not too concerned; we’ve seen Swiftech retail samples and the quality control is good.

The inlet and outlet ports are positioned pretty close together, however, they are staggered so it shouldn’t be a problem using 3/4” OD compression fittings. The pump sports a 4-pin Molex for 12v connection and 3-pin plug for PWM motherboard header. Additional information for the pump can be found on the white sheet here.

Installation

The H2O-320 Edge is probably the most user-friendly water cooling kit fabricated by Swiftech from what we’ve seen. Swiftech H20-320 Edge Water Cooling Kit has done the majority of the work for us and have put their findings and recommendations for installs in the included manual.

The included CD is loaded with install instructions for a good number of today’s computer cases. Having said that, you will still need to do your own homework for your install and remember to take advantage of the information found on that CD and booklet. Here are a couple of installation options that I can use with my test case.

CPU Block Installation

To install the Apogee XTL block you first need to remove the motherboard to install the appropriate backplate for your motherboard. To secure the block in place, tighten the spring-loaded thumb screws until you run out of thread.

The block has a particular mounting orientation which you must follow to ensure maximized performance. As you see in the image below, the six capped-socket screws must run parallel to the memory modules or to the CPU lock-down lever.

Since the Apogee XTL doesn’t have a rotating inlet port-plate it is not compatible with 3/4″OD compression fittings. You will find it is a tight fit with the worm-drive clamps on the oversize tubing.

MCR320 Drive Installation

The Radbox is a handy device when you need to mount the radiator at back of the case. It’s pretty simple to use, you just secure it to the fan screwholes and attach the Radbox to the radiator fan. I didn’t find any issues while mounting the MCR320 Drive.

Test Setup and Methodology

When it comes to water block testing there are two main areas I will look at: one is flow restriction and the other is the thermal performance. The tests are straightforward and are designed to replicate a real world setup as much as possible while maintaining controlled conditions.

Maximum Flow Test

Coolant flow is important because it forms the basis for thermal conductive performance. If you pair a high restriction block with a weak pump or too many components in the loop then it will hurt the cooling performance. To determine how the restriction of a block, I used the absolute flow rate calculation method for the test.

First I need to find out the maximum flow rate of the water source, which it is the MCP655 pump. Flow is measured in a one minute cycle, then I installed the water block into the water loop and measured its maximum flows, subtracting from absolute flow of the pump to find out the flow lost. The following instruments are used in this test.

Thermal Performance Test

BurninTest Pro 5.2v is used to load 100% to all cores for 30 minutes. The test is begun after a cold boot and system idling for 15 minutes to stabilize all the temperatures before the burn-in is activated. Then it sits idle for another 15 minutes after the test is concluded. Temperatures are logged by Everest Ultimate Edition software, load and idle temps recorded at the end of 30 and 15 minute marks.

The average core temps are used for the final result and comparison. Ambient temperature is kept at 19°c and monitor by two digital thermometers. Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste was used in multiple mounts and the best result selected for final temps and comparison.

Results

With the methodology explained and out of the way, let’s see how the Swiftech CPU block specifically performs first in the flow test.

The Apogee XTL block is the most flow restricted block among the competition, however, it isn’t an issue when you pair it with the MCP-35X pump, as the high pressure pump is a perfect match for the Apogee XTL. Let’s move on to the thermal performance test.

For the thermal performance, we tested the H2O-320 Edge with an overclocked i7 920 at 4.0 GHz and 4.2 GHz, using a fan controller to regulate the fan speeds instead of provided in-line transistor wire adaptors.

The pump was regulated by the motherboard BIOS via the CPU’s temperature sensor which allows the pump to run at 1300RPM for idle, and 4400RPM for full load. This proved to be barely audible from two feet away.

With a triple radiator setup, it’s pretty much overkill to use the H2O-320 Edge to only cool a CPU. Therefore, we tossed a Radeon HD5870 into the loop by strapping on a Swiftech Komodo HD5870 block to see how this liquid cooling kit will perform with the extra heat load. But we didn’t stop it there. We cranked up the HD5870’s core and memory to 1000/5100MHz with the voltage pumped up to 1.30v.

CPU and GPU block? It’s a piece of cake with icing on it. The CPU load temperature only rose by 1°C with the graphics card added and about 8°C higher when both CPU and the GPU are fully loaded. Keep in mind this is a worst case scenario we are looking at here; real world temperatures will be much lower during normal daily use applications.

Summary

As we saw today, the H2O-320 Edge is indeed a unique liquid cooling kit. While the H2O-320 Edge may be a pre-fab kit, it still has room for expansion unlike any other sealed kits we’ve seen. It is a new evolution of the water cooling kit and the world’s first “traditional” setup that combines a reservoir, pump and radiator in a whole unit to eliminate the tubing cluster without compromising the performance.

Not only does the performance stay impressively strong, the whole setup is extremely user-friendly as well.

Swiftech has spent many hours researching, designing, and testing to provide an extreme performance all-in-one liquid cooling kit. Swiftech H20-320 Edge also included just about every accessories to make the installation process smooth.

Top performance and convenience does come with a price premium though. The Swiftech H20-320 Edge retails for $330, which is a hefty price tag for a novice but if you’re serious about water cooling then this price is very reasonable compared to DIY setups where components are purchased individually.

The H2O-320 Edge will save you the worry of selecting the correct combination of components, particularly for novices looking to broaden their horizons in the water cooling world.

Even more impressive is that the H20-320 Edge provides the convenience of a do-it-yourself kit without sacrificing performance, which is a rarity among water cooling products from what we’ve seen in our extensive testing.

The Swiftech H20-320 Edge is easily the best water cooling kit we’ve tested in 2010 and we have no hesitation in awarding it our top honour.

Swiftech H20-320 Edge Water Cooling Kit Review